Court Cases

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The ACLU of Rhode Island and the Rights of Students

Most people’s first major encounter with the government is in the school setting. For students to appreciate the importance of civil liberties, it is critical that their rights be practiced and protected in that setting.

About this Case:
This is a lawsuit in federal court seeking monetary damages on behalf of a former Narragansett High School student with special education needs who was thrown to the ground, choked and falsely arrested by a school resource officer (SRO). A video of the incident is available here.

About this Case:
This is a lawsuit brought by the Barrington School Committee against the Rhode Island Department of Education and a middle school student who successfully challenged his three-day out-of-school suspension - twice.

About this Case:
This is an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) lawsuit seeking a court order to force the Providence School District to release Department of Justice documents about the district's violation of federal law related to the rights of English Language Learners.

2018: J.Y. v. Providence School Department

About This Case:J.Y. v. Providence School Department is one of three separate administrative legal actions taken with the RI Department of Education on behalf of students with disabilities who a caught up in the Providence school bus strike. All three complaints allege that the failure of the school district to honor its responsibility under the students’ Individual Education Plans (IEPs) to provide transportation to and from school violates federal and state laws protecting the students’ rights.

The three legal actions, all filed with RIDE, were:

1) Due Process Petition.
Filed by ACLU volunteer attorney Christine Marinello on behalf of twelve-year old Jeremy Young, who has “complex medical, mobility and academic needs and requires the use of a wheelchair at all times.”

2) Demand Letter.
Letter is on behalf of students with disabilities who live and go to school outside Providence, but who have been affected because their buses originate in Providence and are therefore not running.

3) Class Administrative Complaint.
Complaint is on behalf of four named families representing all students with disabilities whose education plans for transportation are being disregarded during the strike.

Current Status:
In February 2019, these complaints were formally settled. The ACLU is still helping get reimbursement to parents who lived outside Providence but had their busing disrupted by the strike. Parents experiencing problems in getting reimbursed can contact the ACLU.

About This Case:
This is a lawsuit filed in RI Superior Court against the Achievement First Mayoral Academy for failure to respond to requests from the ACLU for copies of its policy pertaining to the rights and protections afforded transgender students. The lawsuit argue that the school's failure to respond is a violation of the state's open records law.

About This Case:
This is a lawsuit against the City of Providence challenging a city ordinance that prohibits more than three “college students” from living together in certain areas of the city. The initial lawsuit, filed in RI Superior Court, was on behalf of the owner and tenants of a house in the Elmhurst section of Providence. The suit argued that the ordinance violates the plaintiffs’ rights to due process and equal protection of the law. In February 2018, the RI Superior Court ruled against the rights of the college students.

About This Case:
This is a federal lawsuit against Tiverton police and school officials over an incident in which an 8-year-old girl was removed from a school bus, had her belongings searched, was taken alone to the police station without her parents’ knowledge, and then held and questioned at the police station for several hours before being released. The seizure, detention, and interrogation of the young child were based solely on unsubstantiated claims from another child that the girl was carrying “chemicals” in her backpack, and occurred even after the police found nothing suspicious in the backpack.

This is an open records lawsuit against the Pawtucket School District for its failure to respond to an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request relating to the district's wavier policy from the state "high stakes testing" requirement.

This is an open meetings lawsuit against the R.I. Board of Education over its plans in August of 2013 to meet in a private retreat, closed to the public and the media, in order to hear from invited “experts” on the issue of its “high stakes testing” requirement for high school seniors. The ACLU argued that allowing such a private meeting would significantly undermine the open meetings law’s purpose. In issuing a preliminary injunction against the planned private discussion of the issue, R.I. Superior Court Judge Daniel Procaccini agreed with the ACLU that allowing such a discussion to take place in private would significantly undermine the open meetings law’s purpose.

More information about the issue of high stakes testing can be found here.

This is a lawsuit in R.I. Superior Court over the R.I. Board of Education’s (BOE) failure to consider a petition filed by seventeen organizations to do away with the Board’s “high stakes testing” graduation requirement. The lawsuit argues that the Board had an obligation under state law, which it ignored, to consider the proposal and either reject it or initiate a formal rule-making process to consider its adoption.

A lawsuit against the Town of Narragansett on behalf of three URI pharmacy graduate students who have received tickets for parking their cars overnight on their street even though they have a permit to do so. The town agreed to reinstate the permits, reimburse fines that had been imposed against them, and pay attorneys’ fees.

A class-action lawsuit charging that the state’s truancy court system is devoid of due process protections in violation of state and federal law. Filed in the Rhode Island Superior Court against a number of state family court judges and officials of six school districts including Providence, the lawsuit charges that the truancy courts are frequently punitive in nature, and that truancy court magistrates threaten vulnerable children and their parents with baseless fines and imprisonment, remove children from the custody of their parents without legal justification and fail to keep adequate records of court hearings. The lawsuit also charges that the court system disproportionately impacts children who have difficulty attending school or doing their schoolwork because of special education or medical needs.

The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction requiring an initial investigation of truancy charges before petitions are filed; the transcribing or reporting of all truancy court proceedings; and that the court be barred from issuing orders against students and parents over whom it has no jurisdiction. The lawsuit also seeks final declaratory and injunctive relief requiring that court and school officials abide by federal state and constitutional and state statutory law.

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an ordinance which allows police to charge tenants and landlords with allowing, and to place orange stickers on houses that have allegedly been the site of, “unruly gatherings.”

“Friend of the court” brief in R.I. Supreme Court challenging the lack of due process safeguards in truancy court hearings. The appeal was dismissed as moot when the lower court agreed to dismiss the appellant from the jurisdiction of the court.

Lawsuit challenging a high school principal’s decision, on “zero tolerance” grounds, to ban a student from appearing in medieval garb and holding a prop broadsword for his senior yearbook photo. At the court’s request, the matter was referred to the state Commissioner of Education, who ruled in favor of the student.

2002: In re: C.H.

Category: Students' Rights

Defense of a student charged in a wayward petition with “disorderly conduct” after he drew on a piece of paper in school a picture of a stick figure with a dynamite device blowing up the building; the charge was filed.

2000: Parent v. School Committee of the Town of Johnston

Category: Free Speech Students' Rights

Favorably settled federal lawsuit challenging the summary suspension of a high school student based solely on the content of a “free write” composition.

1998: Parker v. School Committee of the Town of Westerly

Category: Free Speech Students' Rights

Successful administrative challenge to the suspension of a high school student for wearing a rock band T-shirt with the numerals “666” on it.

1997: Goncalves and Lee v. Pawtucket School Committee

Category: Students' Rights

Administrative appeal to the state Commissioner of Education seeking to overturn the 10-day “zero tolerance” suspensions imposed on two Pawtucket first grade students for having a toy ray gun in school; favorably settled.